


Earth-5 #2

by nirejseki



Series: Earth-5 [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Earth-5, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:12:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6636895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another snippet in the Earth-5 universe based on this AU idea: "Earth 5 - Barry Allen is a detective that is part of the metahuman task force. Thanks to Leonard Snart, aka The Flash, he’s gotten the moniker of Captain Cold thanks to the Cold gun Cisco built for Barry. The nickname frustrates and embarrasses Barry because he’s not even a captain. Ironically, Cisco and Snart agree alliteration is catchy and captain just sounds cool."</p>
<p>Cisco and Caitlin go exploring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Earth-5 #2

“I’m almost certain that this is a bad idea,” Caitlin said, following Cisco anyway. 

“Pssh, it’ll be fine,” Cisco said, almost believing it himself. “We’re ROGUES as well, you know; it isn’t the Captain Cold show _all_ the time.”

“Barry hates that nickname, you know,” she pointed out with a grin, adjusting her badge. 

Caitlin was a rookie – same age as Barry, but she’d started her career in medical school before Something Happened and she’d turned to law enforcement instead – but she was his rookie. Also the only person who would agree to come with, since Barry was off dealing with some other ultra-human business. (Cisco was still pouting that the chief hadn’t let them join in on the Shark hunt. Ultra-human Sharks, man, you don’t get much more pulp action novels than that, and Cisco was indisputably the police expert on pulp action novels. He had explained as much to the chief, who had just stared at him and gone, “Yes. That’s it exactly,” before summarily dismissing his request to join in! So unfair.)

“He loves it and you know it,” Cisco shot back triumphantly. “Besides, how are we ever going to get nicknames _ourselves_ if we don’t start doing more? If we ever get the Cold Gun replicated, you could have one yourself, and then we’d call you…uh…”

“Cadet Cold? I think I’ll pass on being the sidekick, thanks.”

“No, now, we’ll come up with something more awesome than that. How about: _Killer Frost_?”

Caitlin stared at him, biting her lip and trying not to giggle. “Cisco. That’s a supervillain name, not a cop name.”

“I’ll think of something. Eventually. But first – we investigate!” Cisco struck a pose that would be very fitting to a pulp action novel cover. Caitlin gave into her giggles. 

“But seriously, Cisco,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea to go investigate these arsons on our own, especially without telling the Chief what we’re up to.”

“They’re just minor fires,” Cisco pointed out. “Generally run down areas, not a lot of fire spreading – the last one had a _fire pit_ dug around it to keep it from growing. It wouldn’t even be a ROGUES thing except for the fact that we keep getting hits on my ultra-human radar in the same general time and area as these fires. Which _means_ , obviously, that it’s more-than-likely a brand new ultra-human manifestation.” He paused. “Except, of course, no one believes me.”

“Well, your ultra-human radar has glitched before,” Caitlin pointed out. He glared at her. “But of course that was because the Flash moved away too quickly for you to track,” she hastily added. “You can’t be expected to account for super-speedsters on your first try. But you will. Because you’re a genius.”

“Good save, Caitlin, good save.” 

“Still, a fire-based ultra-human could potentially be very dangerous. Besides, your own model said that you were getting hits sometimes around the time and place of the fire, sometimes not – and sometimes the ultra-human hit was during the time of the fire, but a number of other times the ultra-human hit didn’t come until after the fire was ongoing.” 

“Yeah, I want to know why that is too. Which is why we’re following the heat signatures of the fire instead of the ultra-human radar – hey, look!” he pointed at the flickering light in the warehouse. “Fire!”

“Cisco! Don’t – Cisco!” Caitlin chased him. “Cisco, we do not run towards the fire! We _call the fire department_!”

“All the other fires have been contained, so we’re clearly dealing with a conscientious…uh,” he said, coming to a dead stop and staring at the blazing fire taking up half the room that was _definitely not under control_. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a problem.”

Caitlin skidded to a stop right at his heels and stared. “Cisco – a fire of this size could take out half the neighborhood!”

Cisco gulped. Caitlin was right – this was part of the older town, still primarily made of wood, not stone or metal. And this fire was huge; it had been hidden by the warehouse walls, but now that they’d opened the door it was obvious that this wasn’t a job for the police. It was a job for the fire department. Possibly all of the fire departments. Visons of the Great Fire of ’89 started dancing in his brain, and that one was started by a lamp. 

“Can I help the two of you?” a gruff voice said from behind them. 

They both squeaked – Cisco, sadly, coming in higher than Caitlin, though he’d deny it – and spun around. There was a man leaning against the wall, looking for all the world like a Sunday park-goer who’d just had their view of Society Square blocked by some slow-moving pedestrians. He had on an old fireman’s jacket and gloves, with airship engineer trousers, but his jacket was unbuttoned, which basically rendered it useless against the heat of the flames. He was clearly not official. His jacket didn’t even say Central City on it. Actually… 

“Wait, are you the arsonist?” Cisco asked, light-bulb belatedly putting two and two together in his brain (sue him, he was distracted by the fire), and checked his ultra-human detector. Nothing. Damn, maybe it was glitchy. He’d been sure he’d gotten it right this time…

“What gave me away?” the man said, looking bored with them. “Now get on your way before the fire goes out.”

“Sir, this fire _isn’t_ going to be going out!” Caitlin exclaimed. “This – we need to call the fire department, we need to warn people, we might have to bring down the whole block as a shield to keep it from spreading –”

“Nah; it’s already been going for nearly twenty minutes,” the man said, looking vaguely disappointed. “That’s about all I can manage for something big like this before Lenny catches wind of it. Stand back; I can hear him.” He motioned for them to come nearer.

They looked at each other doubtfully, but the fire hissed and spat behind them and they both darted forward towards the man.

A second later, Cisco heard a low rumbling sound, like the sound of thunder. Actually, it sounded a lot like the sound that preceded the arrival of the Flash…

A second later a red-and-yellow streak of light zoomed into the room, running circles around the flames and efficiently sucking out all the oxygen out of the fire, while saying something that sounded like “goddamnitMickIwasinthemiddleofsomethingimportant" and “youneedtostopdoingthiseverytimeyougetbored”.

The fire was out in less than two minutes, and the Flash disappeared out the door as quickly as he’d come. 

It was _just as awesome_ as Cisco had always imagined it being. 

“He really is fast,” Caitlin said, voice caught between her instinctive disapproval of criminals and, well, _holy crap that is so awesome_. 

“He’s also a spoilsport, s’what he is,” the man says disapprovingly. “Half the time he barely lets me light ‘em.”

“That’s why the ultra-human radar is off!” Cisco exclaimed. “Sometimes he’s there when it starts, sometimes he only shows up later! Of _course_!”

“Ultra-human radar, huh? You’re tracking Lenny?” the man said, unfolding himself from the wall. “Now that I think of it, you both look like bluecoats…”

Cisco hadn’t really realized how _big_ the guy was. From the way Caitlin stepped back and put her hand down by her gun, she hadn’t either. His clothing was classic airship engineer – tough and durable, meant to take high heats and high impact speeds from gears gone loose – which, in combination with the fire gear, made for some pretty thick armor, so Caitlin’s pistol might not be of much use. 

Also, had Cisco mentioned this, the guy was _really big_. He had burns crawling up the sides of his neck, clearly extending down his shoulders, and he had a little half-grin that mostly spelled out crazy. And not as much “fear of consequences should he attack two members of the CCPD” as Cisco preferred to see. 

“Now,” the man said slowly. “What _should_ I do with you?”

“Uh. Let us go?” Caitlin tried, but the man only looked more menacing. 

Cisco decided to put the 30 minutes he’d spent in that Hostage Negotiation Seminar to good use. Man, he wished he hadn’t been kicked out for doodling and ignoring the instructor. “I’m Cisco Ramon, this is Caitlin Snow,” he said, trying to personalize the (hopefully only potential) victims. “We…really liked your fire?”

Yeah, he had nothing.

Oddly enough, it seemed to work as the man blinked instead of advancing further. “Mick Rory,” he offered. “I’m a chemist.” 

Cisco blinked. He wouldn’t have guessed chemist, of all things – whether the man was using it as a nickname for the chemical engineers that kept the machines running or for the local pharmacist/medics that serviced all the towns that couldn’t afford a proper MD, it required a lot of fine tuning skills which, let’s be honest, wasn’t exactly Cisco’s first impression of Mr. Big-Bulky-and-Scary.

“You work on airships?” Caitlin asked. 

The man – Mick Rory – shrugged. “Depends on the job. I’m a two-for; I fix machines and people both.” 

Caitlin nodded eagerly. “I went to medical school too,” she said. “Though I was aiming to be a doctor.”

“A doc, huh?” Rory said, looking interested and a lot less likely to haul off and murder them. “What specialty?”

Caitlin blushed a little. “I didn’t really get that far; I mostly stuck to General Physiology. Though I’d been thinking about focusing on either clinical physiochemistry or on the musculoskeletal systems.”

That was easily the most words Caitlin had ever said about her med school experience. Cisco only mourned the fact that they all sounded like gibberish.

Crazy arsonist guy was nodding along as if she’d said something in English, though. “Experimentation fields,” he said approvingly. “Nice.”

Caitlin looked surprised and pleased. “My parents thought I should focus on a ‘real’ specialty,” she confessed. “Nutrition, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, that sort of thing. Something I could get a job treating influential people, you know?”

“Harley Street,” he said, referencing the fancy street in the richest part of town where all the super-exclusive doctors had their practices.

“Yes, exactly!”

Cisco cleared his throat. “Not to, uh, stop the budding of what I’m sure will be a wonderful friendship, but Caitlin and I should probably be on our way. And I’m sure Mr. Rory has places he needs to be…”

Caitlin blushed, caught out on her doctor shop talk, but Rory didn’t looked particularly moved. “Not really. I’m trying to figure out why Lenny’s developed fainting spells for the first time at age 40 and there’s only so much you can do before you have to start cutting to get a look inside.”

_Ugh_ , Cisco really hated when doctors talked like that, all saws and scalpels and evil smiles. Like dentists. Dentists were the worst.

“Lenny – you mean the Flash?” Caitlin asked. 

“The one and only.”

“Have you checked his nutrition and caloric intake?” she asked. “I’ve been running some numbers in my spare time – for him to move that fast, he’s got to be burning calories a lot faster than a regular human would, even if his metabolism does process the calories a lot more efficiently.”

Rory looked intrigued. “He’s been losing weight,” he said. “And he’s been real hungry come dinnertime. That’s a good suggestion, doc bluecoat; I’ll have to try something on that.”

“ _Caitlin_ ,” Cisco hissed. “You’re not supposed to give the bad guys _health tips_! We’re the ROGUES, we’re supposed to be _stopping_ their criminal sprees with our cold guns and carting them off to jail!”

“Cold guns?” Rory asked. “I thought you only had one.”

“We only have one _for now_ ,” Cisco emphasized. “We’re just working on duplicating the technology is all. It was sort of an accident the first time, involving a freaking lightning storm and random chemical spills, and now nothing seems to do the same thing…”

Rory grunted. “Try mixing freon and tetrafloroethane as your base and work from there,” he advised. “Plus some high voltage, maybe toss in some petroleum ether. Not sure how you’ll control for the expansion effect – I’d need to see how that gun of your works to figure that one out – but that’ll probably get you some sort of cold bubble. You might be able to do something with that, I don’t know.”

Cisco gaped at him. That was…actually a really good suggestion. “Uh. Thanks, I guess?” He paused. “Won’t the Flash be pissed at you for helping us out?”

Rory shrugged once more. “Consider it a trade for the nutrition tip,” he said. “’sides, I know Lenny. He’ll like it more if you give him a real run for his money.”

He paused, then abruptly scowled. “Goddamnit, now he’s got me doing it,” he said inexplicably, then turned and walked away. 

Cisco tugged on Caitlin’s arm. “C’mon, I need to go back to the lab before I forget his suggestion,” he begged.

“And write our reports,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, that too. Let’s go!”


End file.
